Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Read the folklore masters. Go to galleries. Walk in the woods. That's what you need to be an artist or storyteller.

No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.

Now I really make the little idea from clay, and I hold it in my hand. I can turn it, look at it from underneath, see it from one view, hold it against the sky, imagine it any size I like, and really be in control almost like God creating something.

We've had fiction from the time of cave drawings. I think fiction, storytelling, and narrative in general will always exist in some form.

Storytelling wasn't about making things up. It was more like inviting the stories to come through her, let themselves be told.

I've always been fascinated by the grassroots folktale level of a culture, and as a storyteller, I have to follow what seems to be leading me on.

The most powerful words in English are 'Tell me a story,' words that are intimately related to the complexity of history, the origins of language, the continuity of the species, the taproot of our humanity, our singularity, and art itself.

I know there's a creative side to artists to - pardon me - there's a creative side to scientists already, but there may be an artistic side, too, waiting to break free.

I love to create, and to me, the ultimate freedom of expression is a blank canvas or a block of clay to capture whatever emotions your imagination gives it.

Once something is memorable, it's living and you're using it. That to me is the foundation of a creative society.

The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.

All the things we have to remember, and I've mentioned this before, is that we're all artists.

I think the idea of art kills creativity.

Art and music is part of what it means to be a human being. And if you're neglecting that, you're basically ignoring a huge side of the brain and a huge side of what it means to be human.

My mum is an artist and very into creative expression and freedom.

As long as you're true to you, you believe it and you make others believe it, then what you're doing is just art. If you give everybody a blank canvas and some paint, not everybody's picture is going to be exactly the same, but it's still art. I just do what I do.

Art is the triumph over chaos.

I think the more you understand myths, the more you understand the roots of our culture and the more things will resonate. Do you have to know them? No, but certainly it is nice to recognise how deeply these things are embedded in our literature, our art.

You have to open your mind. I like the ability to express myself in a deep way. It's the closest music to our humanity - it's like a folk music that rises up out of a culture.

Every man is an artist.

To speak of morals in art is to speak of legislature in sex. Art is the sex of the imagination.

I want to be remembered as a storyteller more than someone who had something meaningful to say.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.